The present disclosure relates to methods of integrating III-V compounds on silicon, and semiconductor devices formed using the methods.
Group III-V compounds are a unique group of semiconductor materials that can be used in a wide variety of applications such as optoelectronics, photovoltaics and lighting. However, III-V compounds and silicon have different crystal structures and different lattice constants. Accordingly, it can be challenging to integrate III-V compounds on silicon because structure and lattice mismatches can cause dislocations and defects in the materials. For example compound III-V semiconductors grown directly on silicon often show island-like structures due to the strains caused by lattice mismatch. Various methods have been proposed to grow continuous and planar III-V layers on silicon. Despite all the advances, the art is well receptive to new methods to integrate III-V compounds on silicon.